The only thing scarier than an aggressive, deadly disease is that disease impacting a powerful group of people.
According to the New York Times, there have been 8.32 million COVID-19 cases in the United States resulting in 221,000 deaths. While a pandemic this deadly seems like it would call for obvious solutions, it instead has sparked very controversial discussions.
President Trump’s reactions to this virus includes him referring to it as the “China virus” and saying the United States “has it under control.”
After months of playing down the severity of the outbreak and hours after insisting that the end of the pandemic is in sight, Trump tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 2.
What many though would lead to a change in the conversation surrounding COVID-19, actually lead to even more polarity.
Justin Weismer, 20, of Doylestown said, “Trump getting it made people more afraid to get it because it shows how even through high positions of power where there’s probably big security measures in place, you can even get it then.”
“I think we should alter social distance rules and that there should be more distance in between people, I think there should be like a 10-ft rule for old people,” Weismer added.
While Weismer thought people would become more cautious after the president contracted COVID-19, others thought differently.
Matt Bowe, 19, of Drexel University said, “At first people were more afraid of it, but now that he recovered many of the people that support him are feeling over confident.”
Maddie Jones, 20, of Doylestown said. “I think that Trump managed to twist COVID-19 into a political issue and so him getting COVID-19 didn’t really affect the fear factor in people but rather solidified preexisting feelings of support or dissent of him as president.”
But Trump wasn’t the only one infected. Due to his positive test result coming out shortly after the first presidential debate, many were worried Joe Biden had gotten the virus as well. Fortunately, his test came back negative, however, Trump’s wife and son, Melania and Barron Trump, and Trump’s senior advisor Hope Hicks, were not so fortunate.
“A good chunk of government officials were out of commission for a long time, even as far as the Pentagon which completely opened us up to national security threats,” Jones added.
The spread of COVID-19 between government officials lead to a lot of discussion surrounding how exactly the virus gets around.
Deanna Lorraine, a former GOP congressional candidate tweeted, “Does anyone else find it odd that no prominent Democrats have had the virus but the list of Republicans goes on and on?”
As Trump recovered, he used his recovery to prove to the American people that COVID-19 is not something to be afraid of and he believes that he found a potential cure. But with the election coming up, people are questioning whether Trump is being sincere or whether he’s trying to get more votes to save himself this election.